Additional Assignment Guidelines for the Formative and Summative Assignment HSC-4-007 (September 2016 Cohort) Please read this paper after watching the video lecture It is important to read both the Formative and summative sections as they relate together. Formative Assignment Guidelines You have each been assigned to a “learning set” to work together to explore and present a project that considers service user perspectives and the roles and relationships of Health and Social Care Professionals. As a group you have been asked to explore a given scenario and then consider how the events can be reflected in the wider context of health and social care in the UK. The presentation should last for around 20 minutes and be followed by 10 minutes of discussion and questions from the audience. All group members must be present for the presentation Don’t rush into deciding how you will present your information or what information you will present- this can be decided nearer the time but do think creatively about possibilities e.g. video, website, poster, leaflets, PowerPoint, quiz, role-play etc. A good starting point would be to see what information is already available - you could spend some time searching this out. Go online and see what your professional body say about the topic? Have a think about what you would like to know about the topic and how you might represent the service user perspective. If you have had an experience of being a service user or carer, reflect on your experience and consider what would have made it better. Ask your friends and family what they might want to know. Speak to service users if you are in placement, clinic, visiting your GP or in your workplace and ask them what they think. Finally, if you are unsure or have any queries, please do not hesitate to ask the module leader, seminar leaders and or your personal academic tutor. When you prepare your presentation you should aim to address the following: • Roles and responsibilities of those working with the patient / service user and their family • Communication between professionals and user • Feelings / perspectives of those involved • Patient safety • What could enhance the healthcare experience for the user, their family and others involved in their care? • Your group- overview of how you worked together How you all worked together on the project will then form the basis for your Summative assignment. It may be advisable to keep a reflective account of how the group worked together, communicated together etc. You can then refer to these when you write your Summative assignment. Summative Assignment Guidelines For this module you need to write a 3,000 word reflective account. The title of the assignment is: A reflective account of the experience of working in an Interprofessional learning set. The importance of the assignment for your professional development and future practice This assignment is your opportunity to show your understanding of the importance of interprofessional working within health and social care. You can do this by exploring and reflect on how you (self) and your colleagues in your learning set worked together on a given task (formative assessment). Exploring your own behaviour and recognising and starting to explore how to manage “self” and “other’s” behaviour in your learning group will give you an insight into how you may function and develop your role within the interprofessional team. Areas you should read about and include During the module you will have started to explore the importance of understanding “self” within professional and social interactions. You will also be appreciating that “self” is a very complex, unique and a dynamic entity- changing and developing as you are exposed to different environments, knowledge and interactions. Some parts of “self” being constructed from complex matrixes that arise from attitudes, values, beliefs, experiences, knowledge and understanding. This makes each and every one of us unique in the way we view the world and the knowledge we possess and share. We are all individual and highly complex and it is always good to remember that: • No human comes with an instruction booklet • Human behaviour defies any algorhythum In the module we have observed that when you put individuals together to work on a task (eg. patient discharge) the task does not always feature as the main priority. What you often see is inter and intra personal dynamics manifesting themselves between team members; individuals taking on different roles; conflict; leadership and followership of varying degrees. These dynamics bring the group to life and are fascinating to explore e.g., which roles individuals adopt and; how individuals lead and follow, interfere, block and enhance the process. In this essay you will need to read and consider materials relating to: • Reflection- and in particular Gibb’s Model • The importance of team work in health care policy and professionalism • Service users • Leadership o Types and impact o Followership • Team working o What makes a successful team? o Team roles e.g. the work of Belbin, Tuckman; o What may happen in teams e.g.: Risky shift; change of decision; conformity; group think; obedience o Group size o Team motivation and team values o The impact of status and power o Barriers to team working and strategies for enhancing team working • Communication o Assertion o Managing conflict • Tools for self-development, self-awareness Suggestions for structuring assignment This assignment is a reflective report. This means that you can use headings and sub-headings to help structure your writing. When you write a reflection the reader will expect to learn about your personal experience, feelings, ideas and opinions. Therefore you can use the first person (I, my, me). Introduction This section will tell the reader what you are going to cover and should include something about: • Importance of teamwork in contemporary health service- some good and poor exemplars • How reflection may be used as a tool to explore phenomena and development- • Introduce Gibbs’ Model and let reader know how you will use the model to structure your paper e.g. the 6 stages. Description To set the scene you need to explain what you are reflecting on to your reader. Perhaps include background information, such as what it is you’re reflecting on and tell the reader who was involved. It’s important to remember to keep the information provided relevant and to-the-point. Don’t waffle on about details that aren’t required – if you do this, you’re just using up valuable words that you’ll get minimal marks for. Feelings Discuss your feelings and thoughts about the experience. Consider questions such as: How did you feel at the time? What did you think at the time? What did you think about the incident afterwards? You can discuss your emotions honestly, but make sure to remember at all times that this is an academic piece of writing, so avoid ‘chatty’ text. Evaluation For your evaluation, you need to discuss how well you think things went. Perhaps think about: How did you react to the situation, and how did other people react? What was good and what was bad about the experience? If you are writing about a difficult incident, did you feel that the situation was resolved afterwards? Why/why not? This section is a good place to include the theory and the work of other authors – remember it is important to include references. Analysis Analysis In your analysis, consider what might have helped or hindered the event. You also have the opportunity here to compare your experience with the literature you have read. This section is very important, particularly for higher level writing. Many students receive poor marks for reflective assignments for not bringing the theory and experience together. For example try to explain what you have noted by linking it to the theory. E.g. Belbin’s teams- did your group members adopt any of these? What is your role type? Why is it important? Conclusion to your reflections In your conclusion, it is important to acknowledge: whether you could have done anything else; what you have learned from the experience; consider whether you could you have responded in a different way. If you are talking about a positive experience discuss whether you would do the same again to ensure a positive outcome. Also consider if there is anything you could change to improve things even further. If the incident was negative tell your reader how you could have avoided it happening and also how you could make sure it doesn’t happen again. Action Plan This section sums up anything you need to know and do to improve for next time. Perhaps you feel that you need to learn about something or attend some training. Could you ask your tutor or placement supervisor for some advice? What can you do which means you will be better equipped to cope with a similar event? Submitting your assignment Your paper should be submitted via Moodle in either a pdf format or Microsoft Word format. It is important that the materials in your paper are presented: • Using correct grammar and spelling • Using the LSBU referencing format • Ensuring that confidentiality is maintained throughout and that no individual, trust or service is identifiable Crafting your assignment It is important that you leave plenty of time to read, think about the materials, draft, redraft and proof read your paper. You need to be able to show that you have read and understand the theoretical materials about interprofessional working. Please seek help with these stages by accessing the LSBU student services. Useful Tips for writing your assignment Firstly, make sure you access all the assignment forums for help including: • Moodle Assignment Discussion Area • Drop in assignment workshops • Submission of an outline draft • Accessing LSBU student services Make sure you craft your essay and proof read it several times before submission. Ensure there is no evidence of: Poor grammar: Writing sentences without verbs, changing tenses within sentences, having a noun and a verb not agreeing Poor punctuation: Not knowing how to use apostrophes or punctuate speech and quotations Poor vocabulary: Students don't read, so their vocabularies are meagre; words are misspelled and wrongly used; slang , text language and colloquialisms must not be used. Poor writing: Long words are used wrongly; overblown prose is used to try to sound academic; paragraphs are non-existent Poor planning: Students fail to understand essay questions; find it hard to plan a piece of work; are baffled about note-taking; can't marshal a logical argument or use quotes and references to back one up; resist changing their ideas as a result of researching an essay question; rely uncritically on the internet Poor time planning and communication: Students can be cavalier about appointments and deadlines; music and mobile phones hamper concentration. Please read this newspaper article. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/university-students-they-cant-write-spell-or-present-an-argument-479536.html Useful phrases to use when writing your reflection may include: My experience of this leads me to believe/think/question… • I think/feel/believe/hope/am convinced... • I remember/recall... • This was difficult/easy/frightening/exciting etc. • I find this worrying/amusing/convenient etc. • For me, this assertion is very difficult to agree with... • I agree/do not agree with Smith (2013) when she argues that... • Based on my personal beliefs and experiences… • In my mind the key question/issue is… • It had not occurred to me that … http://www.deakin.edu.au/students/studying/study-support/academic-skills/reflective-writing Additional vocabulary aids can be found here: http://www.port.ac.uk/media/contacts-and-departments/student-support-services/ask/downloads/Reflective-writing---a-basic-introduction.pdf Referencing Materials It is also very important that you referenced your sources correctly in both the text of your assignment and reference list. This should be using the LSBU Harvard system. Please ensure you access the materials at: https://my.lsbu.ac.uk/my/wcm/myconnect/01f877e0-71ab-487d-92bb-6d4a14a91572/Harvard+referencing+helpsheetOct+2016.pdf?MOD=AJPERES Other ways to structure your assignment http://www.uefap.com/writing/genre/reflect.htm http://my.cumbria.ac.uk/Public/LISS/Documents/skillsatcumbria/ReflectiveCycleGibbs.pdf Make sure you self- assess your reflection using the marking grid You could self-assess your reflection using the marking grid shown below. This is what the markers will be using. What markers will expect to see? Expression and organisation Coherence and organisation of assignment Addressing assessment purpose / adherence to guidelines Grammar and spelling and Referencing Need to be of a reasonable standard. • Layout and use of headings, subheadings and tabular information should help with clarity rather than confuse it. • Gibbs reflective model must be used to structure their work. Sources should be correctly acknowledged in both the text and reference list. Harvard system should be accurately adhered to 30% Content and Knowledge The students should be able to demonstrate their application and understanding of their chosen reflective model. The key aspect of reflection should be the student’s personal and professional learning from the experience of working in the learning set and or being in clinical practice. Students need to have highlighted this and clearly linked it to some sort of action plan or conclusion from Gibbs Model 40% Knowledge and Application of Theory Students need to draw on blendend learning material including online lecturers, reading and seminars. Students should be drawing on a range of sources that they consider relevant to their learning experience. Use of Literature and evidence of reading References used should be relevant to the student’s learning experience. References should be integrated into the assignment rather than ideas just being listed. There is not a specified number of references expected however students should be drawing from a range of relevant sources 40% Conclusion and application to assessment task/practice A clear conclusion summarising the main learning from the experience and an action plan with clear, practical strategies for further personal and professional development should be evident. A clear understanding of the assessment task with explicit links to learning set experience and or practice should be made where possible and relevant. 30% Additional Information about Reflection What is Reflection and why is the assignment important for practice Reflection is a fundamental component of continued professional development, which is required by all regulatory bodies of healthcare professions in order to maintain registration. We reflect quite naturally in our day to day lives, thinking about things that have happened, why they happened, whether we handled them well. In academia, you may be asked to formalise your reflections to show that learning is taking place. This is what we will ask you to do for this assignment. Gibbs states: ‘It is not sufficient to have an experience in order to learn. Without reflecting on this experience it may quickly be forgotten, or its learning potential lost.’ (Gibbs, 1988, p9) Many degrees involve assessed reflective writing. This is to allow you to demonstrate that you can think critically about your own skills or practice, in order to improve and learn. It is important to analyse rather than just describe the things you are reflecting on, and to emphasise how you will apply what you have learned. In summary: 1. Reflection is one of the key ways in which we can learn from our experience 2. An essential tool for helping students make links between theory and practice 3. A way to take our experiences as a starting point for learning (Jaspers 2003) Reflective skills, particularly structured reflective strategies, enable us to make the most of everything we do. This includes not only remembering things that have already happened but also anticipating and planning for the future.” (Jaspers 2003 page vi) For example a poor reflection may have one or more of the following: • Poor grammar, spelling, lack of clarity, proofreading • Lack of reflective model to structure your reflection. • Word count low/high, superficial, Lacking in academic rigour • Poor integration of literature/underpinning theory • Unsubstantiated statements • Referencing-lack of/ mistakes in/relevance of, No evidence of wider reading Key theories missing Whilst you are writing your reflection please go back and check that you have not made any of these errors. Use word to check. Looks at the following examples shown below can you rewrite them to improve them? You may want to use the resources from the learning support and or your personal tutor? Have a look at what can go wrong in a reflection. Tuckman (1977) said that our group went through the following stages-forming, storming and norming and I agree that our group did.” “We all took on a variety of group roles but we really needed a leader. No-one was willing to take this role on and because of this the group of course was unable to function properly.” How could these sentences be rewritten to improve their clarity? Sue, one of the other group members obviously had no insight into how other people saw her- she could really do with sorting this out as she wound everyone up and it caused major problems in our learning set. She should really go for some counselling or therapy and I really don’t know how on earth she ever got accepted onto her course.” The moment we first met as a group I took on the role of leader as I usually do. I allocated everyone tasks to complete and made sure that they all met their deadlines. On several occasions I had to tell people off who had not pulled their weight. No-one had an issue with this and if I had not done this the group would not have functione What can go wrong in a reflection Here are some aspects to check in your paper. Make sure they do not appear: • Too much description • Lack of clarity re differences in stages of the chosen reflective model. • Judgemental attitudes • Lack of insight into role within team. • Action plan lacking. • Required issues not addressed • No real analysis and discussion of theory • Recipe following • Reflection without learning • Inappropriate disclosure • Uncritical acceptance of the experience Using Gibbs’ (1988) reflective model in reflective writing The following text is an example of a piece of reflective writing, following Gibbs’ (1988) model. The task was to write a reflection about an incident which occurred during the first few weeks of a teaching placement (1000 words). Please note that the references used are fictional. Taken from http://my.cumbria.ac.uk/Public/LISS/Documents/skillsatcumbria/ReflectiveCycleGibbs.pdf Please read through this example and see whether it meet the requirement of a good reflection!!! Description I am currently on a teaching practice placement in an adult education college in the south-west of England, learning how to teach GCSE maths to various groups of adults. As my placement is in the early stages, I am mainly assisting the class tutors and have just started planning and delivering a small part of each lesson. The incident occurred in an evening class during which I was due to deliver my very first session. The class tutor had been teaching the learners about fractions, and my task was to continue with this instruction, looking specifically at how to multiply two fractions. However, when I was due to teach the session, I got to the whiteboard and became so nervous that I struggled to speak to the group. I felt myself visibly shaking and was unable to articulate my first sentence coherently. The students were quite understanding, as they are all mature students who are aware that I am new to teaching and am nervous, but the class teacher was unsympathetic and responded by taking over the lesson whilst I sat at the back of the room trying not to cry. I left the session as soon as the class was over, and did not speak to anyone. Feelings I felt extremely miserable at the time and even considered leaving my teacher training course. I was also embarrassed and upset by my own inability to speak in front of the group, but I was also extremely angry with the class teacher for her response in the presence of the learners. I felt afterwards that she had not given me sufficient time to compose myself, and that she should have allowed me to address my nerves. The situation left me very distressed and I rang in sick the following week; it was only when I reflected on the experience that I decided I needed to speak to the placement supervisor. I also realised later that feeling nervous is a natural reaction to speaking in public (Jones, 2000) which made me feel less embarrassed. Evaluation At the time, I did not feel that the situation had been resolved at all. I very deliberately left at the end of the class without speaking to the class teacher or the learners. However, after speaking to a fellow trainee about his own experience, I felt much more positive. I realised that everyone feels nervous before their first few classes. This is clear in the relevant literature, as Greene (2006, p. 43) points out, saying that nine out of ten new trainee teachers found their first session “incredibly daunting”. It appears that most trainee teachers have moments of being “tongue-tied” and “losing their way with the lesson” (Parbold, 1998, p. 223). Analysis The situation was made worse by both my own actions and those of the class teacher. I feel that I should have stood up to her, rather than letting Academic Liaison, Employability and Skills (ALES) Page 4 of 4 Email us: [email protected] her take control of the lesson, and that I should have spoken to her immediately after the lesson about how I was feeling. Dealing with situations like this immediately is preferable, as Cooper (2001) points out. Instead, I spoke to my placement supervisor several days later, and did not see the class teacher again until a formal meeting consisting of myself, the teacher and the supervisor. Daynes and Farris (2003) say that, by not dealing with situations immediately and personally, and instead taking it to an authority figure, the situation can be made worse. The class teacher could have felt that she was being “ganged up on” (Thomas, 2003, p. 22), which could lead to future problems. The teacher’s actions also made the situation worse, because she did not give me time to overcome my fears and she deliberately embarrassed me in front of the class. She claimed that she had thought she was helping me to overcome my anxieties, but I do not believe that to be the case. However, as we only spoke about the incident over a week later in the meeting with the supervisor, she rightly argued that I should have said something to her at the time. Conclusion In retrospect, I would do several things differently. I should have spoken to the class teacher immediately after the session and voiced my opinions. I should also have been more assertive by advising the tutor that I could continue with the lesson. However, the incident made me realise the importance of building up a relationship with the teacher, a skills that Jackson (1999) stresses as fundamental to a successful placement. I feel that, had I developed a professional relationship with the teacher in the preceding weeks, I would have been able to explain how nervous I was beforehand. This would have provided the opportunity to discuss strategies for dealing with nerves and perhaps the incident could have been avoided entirely. Action Plan In future, I will ensure that I build up a relationship with colleagues. I am working alongside several different teachers during my placement, and I intend to speak to each of them about my nerves. I have already had a beneficial conversation with one teacher and together we have developed a programme of team-teaching for the next few weeks so that I do not feel so pressurised. I plan to do this with the other class teachers, as it will help them to understand how I feel. I also need to speak to my fellow trainees more often about how they feel, as I think I will be able to learn from them. In terms of training, I have booked onto a presentation skills workshop at University, and intend to follow it up by attending the practise sessions afterwards. This experience has made me realise that I need to gain more confidence with present Additional Reading Bolton, G., (2014) Reflective practice: writing and professional development 4th Ed. London: Sage Bulman, C. and Schutz, S. (Editors) (2013) Reflective practice in nursing 5th Ed. Oxford: John Wiley Jaspers, M (2013) Beginning Reflective Practice (with coursemate and ebook) (nursing and health care practice) 2nd Ed. Cengage learning Moon J.A (2006) Learning journals: a handbook for reflective practice. Taylor and Francis